


in my blood

by jjokkiri



Category: Produce 101 (TV), UP10TION, X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Established Relationship, M/M, mafia dynamics?, mentions of wounds/injuries/blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 20:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21003674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjokkiri/pseuds/jjokkiri
Summary: “Wooseok, stay back.” Jinhyuk’s unwavering eyes fixed their gaze on the back of the man’s figure. “I need to speak to you.”The soft footsteps fell silent and several eyes turned to look at them.Jinhyuk ignored them, his eyes focused on Wooseok.“Alone.”





	in my blood

The silence in the room was deafening. 

The tense gaze between Lee Jinhyuk and his subordinates burned; they watched one another carefully but they did not speak. Five men stood facing the tall man standing behind the desk—three filed into a neat line behind the two men who held their heads high, two steps away. 

Their attention was strung unwavering across the distance.

An empty folder laid open on the desk, loose sheets of paper—profiles of strangers—scattered across the surface of the desk and on the floor. It’d been thrown; the aftermath showed it clearly.

The dark-haired man standing in front spoke, his fingertips impatiently tapping against the smooth metal of the dagger strapped to his thigh, “If that is everything you have to say to us, sir, dismiss us.” 

From behind him, the three other men who stood in a straight line glanced at one another, nervously. 

They were only ever nervous under the gaze of the tall man; their composure remained steady at any other moment. They were carefully trained for this: to hold their heads high and never falter in any circumstances out in the world. But that was there, out in the world. Here, they were unsettled. Here, there was an unspoken tension they couldn’t quite work out.

The tall man standing beside the man who spoke only spared him a wordless glance, a shift of his eyes and nothing more. He kept his composure in front of the man behind the desk.

Undeterred by the atmosphere, he held his head high as he spoke. “We have a task to finish.”

Jinhyuk’s eyes hardened.

“You will be dismissed when I say so,” he replied. “You will be dispatched when I say so.”

Unfaltering, the man cued for his men to leave. 

He turned, “You gave us our mission,” he said. “We have nothing more to discuss.”

The man standing beside him finally spoke, authority clear in his voice.

_“Wooseok,” _he whispered his name with a careful hand against the holster of his gun. He said nothing more but the smaller man stopped in his footsteps. The tone of Cho Seungyoun’s voice was stern; a warning. Wooseok turned to look at the man standing beside him. Their conversation flickered between their eyes; not a word was spoken but all meaning shared. _Clashing fire suddenly doused with understanding._

Seungyoun motioned for the team to leave the room.

As the team began to leave the office on their commander’s cue, Jinhyuk grit his teeth.

“Wooseok, stay back.” Jinhyuk’s unwavering eyes fixed their gaze on the back of the man’s figure. “I need to speak to you.” The soft footsteps fell silent and several eyes turned to look at them. Jinhyuk ignored them, his eyes focused on Wooseok. _“Alone.”_

The prying eyes left the room, the door fell shut with a thud. Wooseok stood with his back towards him, unwilling to face him. Jinhyuk’s heart clenched in his chest, his fist clenched by his side.

“What did you need to speak to me about, sir?” 

“Wooseok,” Jinhyuk started to say. He struggled to keep his tone stable. 

Wooseok wasn’t looking at him. His voice cracked, “_Baby_, look at me.” 

Wooseok stilled, his hand rested against his own thigh, against the holster of his daggers. 

Jinhyuk watched him with desperate eyes. 

After a long moment of silence, Wooseok turned his head to look at Jinhyuk over his shoulder. His eyes were tired and dull, a fraction of the bright eyes Jinhyuk had grown used to—had fallen in love with. 

“What do you need, sir?” Wooseok pressed. 

Jinhyuk flinched at the tone of his voice.

His response was soft, hesitant.

“Don’t call me that, I’m not asking you this as your boss,” Jinhyuk’s hands gripped at nothing by his sides. He swallowed, “I don’t want you going out tonight. They don’t need you out there tonight.” 

Wooseok scoffed at that. 

“They don’t need me?” the vice-commander rolled his eyes. “Then, who does? You?” 

Jinhyuk felt the jab in his chest, a hundred invisible daggers tailed Wooseok’s cold words. He winced. It would hurt less if Wooseok pulled the dagger from his holster and stabbed him. 

Then, pathetically, he inhaled. He nodded his head. 

“Me, Wooseok,” he breathed. “_I_ need you. I need you by my side. I need you to be here with me. Baby, you’re killing me. _You’re killing me_.” 

Wooseok was undeterred. He turned his head away, “I have a job to do.” His fingers gripped the holster attached to his thigh, “and my team needs me more than you do, sir.” 

He sent Wooseok’s team out on a mission. He sent them on a difficult mission but they were all capable, natural talents finely moulded by Wooseok himself. All of the boys on Wooseok’s team were more than capable of handling themselves but the vice-commander stuck close to them with constant worry (“Dohyon is more than capable of slitting someone’s throat on his own but he’s too young to be on his own,” Wooseok argued when Jinhyuk’s father had suggested sending the young boy on a mission alone). Wooseok was a backup to their team—a talent who was summoned only when it was critical.

But as much as he was crucial to the function of the team in a crisis, with their commander present on the mission, with Seungyoun out on the field with them, there wasn’t a desperate need for Wooseok to be with them. But a difficult mission was a dangerous mission and Wooseok couldn’t stay contained in their headquarters knowing it was life-threatening for his team to leave the safety of the walls. 

Jinhyuk couldn’t let Wooseok go. He was still injured from a previous mission. He couldn’t let him go. 

“You’re still hurt,” Jinhyuk whispered, “You’re not performing at your best. It’s dangerous.” 

There was a stagger in Wooseok’s steps when he walked. He’d been shot in the foot during their last mission. He wasn’t in the best condition to carry out additional tasks. He knew that. Jinhyuk _knew_ he knew that but Wooseok was stubborn. Jinhyuk couldn’t stop him.

Wooseok was stubborn and he never accepted help even when he needed it. There was something about Kim Wooseok that demanded order. He kept all his problems to himself, never thought of them as relevant in his line of work. He brushed all his feelings to the side as if he could ignore them if he buried them deep enough. Jinhyuk sometimes wondered if Wooseok ever tried to bury their love.

Wooseok laughed, humourless and cold, “We kill for a living. It’s always going to be dangerous, sir.” 

Their morals were twisted. It was twisted for Jinhyuk to worry about Wooseok’s safety when Wooseok was dangerous to everyone around him.

“You can avoid making it more dangerous for everyone else,” Jinhyuk told him. He sounded desperate, a stark contrast to Wooseok’s sharp tone. “An injured vice-commander tagging along on a dangerous mission? It isn’t a good idea. I just want to keep you safe, Wooseok.” 

Wooseok didn’t answer him. The assassin kept his eyes trained to the ground.

Jinhyuk studied the younger man’s figure. His voice softened.

“… Seungyoun wouldn’t want you to come with him,” Jinhyuk said. “We need you alive.” 

Wooseok grit his teeth. He turned his head to look at the door, to where Seungyoun had been standing just moments ago—to where his commander had been standing just moments ago.

“_You_ need me alive. But you can’t protect me, Jinhyuk,” Wooseok said after a long moment of silence. “You can’t shelter me when I swore on my blood to protect _you_.” 

Jinhyuk swallowed, his heart aching at the reminder of the night Wooseok pledged himself to Jinhyuk’s family—to their line of work. He vividly could recall the determination in Wooseok’s eyes when he swore his oath in blood. He recalled moments later when the room emptied and Wooseok collapsed on the floor, blood still pouring from the gash in his wrist. He recalled the way that Wooseok looked at him with soft eyes and a gentle smile, a whisper that he would be okay. He remembered the way Wooseok let him press a soft kiss to his wrist and let him dress his wound. He remembered the way that Wooseok let him carry him to bed, the way they fell asleep in one another’s arms. 

“I can’t shelter you but I can ask you to stay by my side,” Jinhyuk whispered, “I can ask you to protect yourself to protect my heart. Wooseok… don’t go.” 

Wooseok heaved a sigh. He turned to look at Jinhyuk, eyes tired. 

He bit down on his lower lip, his resolve slowly crumbling before him. 

“You can’t fall in love when you live a life like this,” he said. Wooseok fixed his eyes on Jinhyuk’s figure. He took several steps forward, closer to Jinhyuk. The taller man’s hands ached to hold him. 

“I fell in love with you before you swore yourself to us,” he said, soft and fragile. He swallowed, “I didn’t want you to swear that oath. But you always do what you want. I’ve never been able to stop you.” 

“I wanted you to be safe,” Wooseok replied, simply. “I wanted to stay by your side even if it was dangerous.”

“Because you love me.” 

“Because I love you.” The determination still blazed in Wooseok’s tired eyes, unwavering. _Sincere._

Jinhyuk inhaled. _If there was a feeling Wooseok didn’t try to bury, it was love._

It was a feeling that burned through his veins, a feeling he couldn’t ignore.

“I want _you _to be safe because I love _you_,” Jinhyuk told him. “You run around with a gun in your hands, daggers hidden on your person. You are one of the most dangerous people I know but I love you and I want you to stay safe. _Baby_, you’re still hurt. Please just stay with me tonight.” 

Wooseok’s resolve crumbled, a dramatic downfall of the walls he built up as a mask around everyone else. The mask of the vice-commander. Wooseok’s eyes fell, downcast. He sighed. 

A quiet footstep forward had him standing right in front of Jinhyuk, in reach for him to _hold_. Wooseok looked up at him, his eyes tired but beautiful. _Still so beautiful._ Jinhyuk wrapped his arms around him, he pulled him against his chest. Wooseok exhaled, relaxed in his arms. 

He was so tired. He fell into Jinhyuk’s arms, exhausted. 

Jinhyuk couldn’t be more grateful that there were moments when Wooseok was willing to drop his guard enough to rely on someone else. _To rely on him._

“If anything happens to them… if Hyeongjun comes back with even a single hair missing on his head,” Wooseok whispered, “I won’t forgive you.” 

Jinhyuk knew that Wooseok knew, better than anyone, that everyone on his team was more than capable. He knew that they both knew that Hyeongjun would come back to them unharmed, always. They both knew that Wooseok’s worries were unneeded, unnecessary. But sometimes, you wanted to care for the people you loved even when they could care for themselves. And maybe that was love.

“Seungyoun will take good care of the kids,” he told him, a soft whisper against his skin as he pressed a kiss to Wooseok’s forehead. His fingers gently stroked Wooseok’s cheek, soft eyes searching the younger man’s eyes. “And I’ll take good care of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/yuseokki) / [cc](https://curiouscat.me/jjokkiri) ♡  
this happened at around 3am when i couldn't sleep. i still don't know what i'm doing.


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